Door check and hold open



May 25, 1948. F 0, RlLEY ET AL 2,442,177

DOOR CHECK AND HOLD OPEN Filed May 23, 1946 IN VEN TOR.

Fran/r O. R//eg Roy E Ande/son 147'? ORA/E V5 Patented May 25, 1948 DOOR CHECK AND HOLD OPEN Frank O. Riley and Roy Mich., assignors to Gen Detroit, Mich., a corp F. Anderson, Detroit,

eral Motors Corporation, oration of Delaware Application May 23, 1946, Serial No. 671,709

(Cl. Iii-86) 8 Claims.

This invention relates to door checks and holdopen devices.

In the new type of heavy doors, and especially in view of their tendency to swing closed by reason of the pitch in the pivot line due to modern styling, it has been found desirable and necessary to provide hold-open devices in connection with door checks. These have usually taken the form of spring or friction latches or catches to retain the door in its fully open position when it has been thrown wide open, but they do not function when the door is not initially swung wide open and they are, therefore, objectionable on this account as the door is quite liable to swing back and catch some part of the person or clothing of one entering or leaving the car. It has already been proposed to overcome this diniculty by providing a spring which tends to open the door and swing it outwardly.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved door check and hold-open of this type in which the amount of throw of the door may be varied by adjusting the length of the linkage, but without altering the effectiveness or operation of a rubber bumper or stop that is used to arrest the outward throw of the door. This will more fully appear hereinafter.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a fragmentary section through the door and the body pillar showing a plan view of the check and the hold-open device.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a detail of the pivot pin that carries the clock spring which tends to keep the door open.

I is an anchor plate secured to the inside of the body pillar by spot welding or otherwise. Secured to this is a threaded sleeve or nut 2 into which screws a bolt 3 which has a head that forms a knuckle 4 for the pin 5 on which swings the interiorly threaded sleeve 6 which is arranged to receive the externally threaded stem 1. Sleeve 6 and stem 'I form the two sections of a toggle arm which is pivoted to the other toggle arm 8. The other toggle arm 8 is pivoted by pin 9 to bell crank lever IIJ, which in turn is pivoted at II to the anchoring bracket I2. This bracket is secured by bolts and nuts I3 to the inside panel I4 and the angle strip I5 which reinforces the inside door panel and forms the jamb face of the door and part of the overlap flange. Bell crank lever I has a limited possible throw due to turned-over stop I6 on the anchoring bracket I2. The clock spring Il has its inner end anchored in the slot I8 of pin 9. The outer end of the spring engages the turned-over lug I9 on toggle arm 8. It will be noted that this tends at all times to straighten the toggle and resist the door closing, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1.

The bell crank lever I 0 has on its free end a thick rubber bumper 20 which at all times tends to bear against the plate portion of the bracket I2, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This rubber bumper has a nib portion 2l which can be squeezed through an opening in the turned-over end of the bell crank lever Il). The head of the nib then expands and locks the rubber bumper in place on the end of the lever arm.

The operation of the device is as follows: When the door is unlatched the clock spring I'I tends to open the door. If the door is jerked violently open the toggle arms, when they reach the limit of their movement which is the substantially straight-line position as shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 1, will then put a tractile stress on the bell crank lever I0 tending to turn it on its pivot II, but this turning movement is resisted by the distortion of the rubber bumper 20. This placing of the rubber bumper on the lever arm has several advantages. One is that there is never a striking impact on the bumper, that is, the bumper is not carried on a member that has considerable throw before the bumper makes an impact with the member that stops it, nor is it carried on a stationary member where the bumper is impacted by a member that has considerable throw. These actions tend to wear and destroy the bumper.

The bumper in this improved door check, when it comes into action, simply takes a squeeze and, therefore, is not subjected to the wear and destruction involved in a heavy impact. Further, this arrangement provides a convenient way of locating the bumper at a desirable location without interfering with the design of the parts of the door check. It also permits the adjustment of the throw of the door check by changing its length without any effect whatever in the bumper. The torsion spring at its inner end, when put under stress, as shown in the full lines, tends to unwind or turn clockwise and thereby throws the bell crank lever I0 tightly up against the stop I6 to prevent any rattling. When the door is opened the outer end of the spring immediately goes into action and tends to straighten 4the toggle and hold the door open at any and all positions. The strength of the spring can be such that it will immediately throw the door completely open, but this is usually undesirable and it will be better to have the spring interpose just enough stress to keep the door in any position of opening, at least near the outer limit of the throw of the door. It is undesirable to throw the door wide open by spring action. Another car may be close or some other interfering object. A strong spring that throws the door wide open is also undesirable because it makes it much harder to close the door. We want it un-derstood, however, that so far as the lever-bumper arrangement is concerned, the

device can be used without the spring, in which case it will'functlon only as a door check.

It will be obvious that the throw of the door may be easily adjusted by simply taking out the knuckle pin and then turning the sleeve section 6 of the outer toggle arm upon the threaded stem 1. This affords a very easy adjustment without in any way disturbing the bumper.

In the claims where the bumper is referred to, -we desire it to be understood that this may be a rubber bumper, a spring bumper or a bumper of any other deformable material.y

We claim:

1. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms,k one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm and a. deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their mpvement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper.

2. A door check comprising a'. pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm and a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper, the said lever being a bell crank arm in which one end of the bell crank is pivoted to said other member, the other end of the bell crank carrying the bumper and the elbow of the bell crank having said pivotal connection with the toggle arm.

3. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms, one of whichvcan be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm and a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper, and a spring at all times stressing the toggle arms and tending to straighten the same to open the door.

4. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a. door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivotingto the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm, a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper and a stop adjacent the said lever for arresting the movement of the lever when the door closes and the toggle arms tend to fold, the said stop limiting movement of the lever to a very small distance.

5. A door checkcomprising a pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle of the check straighten arm, a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper, the said lever being a bell crank arm in which one end of the bell crank is pivoted to one of said members, the other end of the bell crank carrying the bumper and the elbow of the bell crank having a pivotal connection with the toggle arm, and an anchoring bracket for pivoting the bell crank to one of said members and provided with a turned-over lug to act as a stop to restrict the bell .crank to a very limited movement.

6. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm, a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper and a torsion or clock spring having its inner end anchored to the pivot between the said lever and the toggle arm and its outer end stressing the toggle arm to straighten the toggle and open the door.

7. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm and a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when the toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper, one of the toggle arms being made of two sections telescoping together and adjustable with respect to each other.

8. A door check comprising a pair of toggle arms, one of which can be pivoted to one member of a pair of members, a door pillar and a body pillar, a lever for pivoting to the other member of the pair of members and to the other toggle arm and a deformable bumper on said lever arranged to contact a surface and be distorted when Vthe toggle arms of the check straighten out and reach the limit of their movement and to thereby arrest the check by the cushioning action of the bumper, one toggle arm made up of two sections that comprise an internally threaded sleeve and an externally threaded stem which screw together to permit the alteration of the length of the toggle arm.

FRANK O. RILEY. ROY F. ANDERSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

